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SAN FRANCISCO — Professional athletes frequently get traded to other teams, but San Francisco
49ers tight end Vernon Davis is about to be the first ever to be traded like a stock.

Davis, an eight-year veteran of the National Football League, is serving as the litmus test for
a risky concept: Whether sports stars should be treated like public companies, whose moneymaking
potential can be bought and sold on an exchange by ordinary investors. San Francisco-based Fantex
Inc. plans to operate the exchange and will orchestrate Davis’ initial public offering of stock
after getting regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The deal requires Fantex to pay Davis $4 million in exchange for 10 percent of his future
earnings, including some of his off-field income. To cover Davis’ fee, Fantex seeks to sell 421,100
shares of stock at $10 apiece. The company hopes to complete the initial public offering in the
next few weeks.

Davis, 30, will need to make more than $40 million just to deliver a small return on Fantex’s
investment in him.

Fantex is counting on him to earn most of that money after his current contract with the 49ers
expires in 2015. By then, Davis will be at an age when it might be difficult for him to land
another big payday, although there are precedents for it. That means the deal could prove to be
more profitable for Davis than the investors who buy the Fantex stock tracking his performance.

IPO expert Francis Gaskins is advising investors to stay on the sidelines. Fantex’s concept “
just sounds like something that P.T. Barnum would try to sell,” says Gaskins, president of
IPOdesktop.com. “I don’t think it’s going to work out.”

Fantex CEO Buck French has been trying to overcome skepticism while traveling around the country
for pre-IPO meetings that began in early February. The journey included traveling to 12 cities in
two weeks last month on an old bus that retired NFL announcer John Madden used to ride to get to
his broadcasting assignments.

“We are successful businessmen and we are putting together a transaction we believe in,” French
says.

Fantex will cover its expenses by taking a small cut of the revenue generated by Davis.
Investors who own the Davis tracking stock could profit from a combination of the player’s earnings
and gains in the value of their shares.

The income will come from Davis’ career football earnings dating to last October, as well as any
money he makes from off-the-field endorsements or other jobs, such as sports broadcasting, that he
gets during the rest of his life.

The deal only covers earnings tied to his success as an athlete. His income from his holdings in
a Jamba Juice franchise and a San Jose, Calif., art gallery is already excluded.